Scanned a Ghost
by HovaStrider
Summary: Danny has never heard of Chaotic or Perim in his life, so how does he end up stuck there? Meanwhile rumors are starting to spread. Chaotic players have been hearing about mysterious new creatures showing up. Creatures and Players alike are being asulted by ghostly essences whispering about replacement. "Poll Winner" (rating subject to change)
1. Stowaway

Chapter 1- stowaway

She wafted through a zone covered in green, she wore a simple tunic and vest both different shades of the same color, her baggy black pants had a tear in them showing a gash underneath bleeding red, her knee high boots kicked at the air as she flew, hooded short cloak flapping behind her, her face covered by a simple white mask in the shape of a fox. Her hands gripped a large bundle tightly, her pale hands turning whiter at the grip she had. She flew onwards, her pursuers closely behind her. A ghost in white tux carrying a bull horn flanked by specters in swat team uniforms.

"By authority of Sheriff Walker, you are under arrest for violation of ghost zone law section seven; no real world items are permitted in the ghost zone."

She ignored them, searching, a pair of real fox ears pricked from under the hood listening. A door opened to her right glowing blue; her ears shivered. There!

She kicked turning herself towards it and willing herself to go faster. Her pursuers shooting at her like mad. A stray shot landed in her arm, hurting her. She let out a yelp veering too far to the right, slamming into a passing ghost in black and white clothes.

She stared at him a moment before kicking off of him, the kid gave a yelp of surprise turning to see who had jumped him, "Hey, watch it!"

She didn't answer she redirected herself for the door, the ghosts behind her splitting off in two directions now. She was so close.

***8***

Danny phantom had just come from the Dark Age's section of the ghost zone. Behind him Dora, or Dorathea, one of the area's princesses, waved him off. He aimed himself for home expecting to have a smooth flight.

"Thanks again Dora, so long." He called.

The princess ghost gave the cage in her hand a rattle, a small ghost inside shaped like a bear shivered at the sight of her. Even more so as she turned into a dragon form, bellowing, "Now about your crimes in my domain."

The bear-like ghost shivered again.

Danny glided off, eyes open for trouble. Otherwise he was relaxed, "A job well done, a dangerous ghost captured and successfully dropped in the capable hands of Dragon princess Dora. And not a villain in sight, Not bad for a Saturday."

Something slammed into him, knocking the wind out of his human half, he blinked to see who it was yelling out, "Hey, watch it!"

The figure, a hooded girl in old looking clothes didn't answer; instead she kicked off of him headed upwards. Danny went flying back a bit, he glared at her, "Hey what do I look like a door mat?"

That's when he noticed the several ghosts chasing her, all of them belonging to Walker, the self-dictated sheriff of the ghost zone, and not a very good one to boot. The mob was headed by walker himself. The ghost shot a glance at him and pointed.

"_You_! Get him too he still owes a thousand years of imprisonment."

The group split off in two. Danny flew upwards dodging ecto-blasts that were now aimed at him. He fired a few shots of his own energy back, "Great just what I need, Walker and his goons with a cell waiting."

He reached for his cold core, blasting a ray of ecto infused ice. Several of the ghosts were frozen solid as a result, but others were still coming. He glanced up at the figure, she wasn't even trying to fight back; she flew onwards allowing two more shots to grazed her. She faltered.

"Ok, hit me once shame on you, hit walker's bad side and you can't be all bad yourself." he flew up towards her. The ghosts behind him followed, joining back with the group. Another shot was about to hit her, Danny threw up a shield flying behind her, "Hey are you alright?"

The girl didn't answer, she floated before the door glowing with blue energy and held up her hand, the door turned yellow and opened with a simple touch. She turned behind her and gave a howl. Long and rusty sounds pierced through the ghost zone with such energy they formed ripples of thin air. The ghosts covered their ears, halting their attacks but not their now pained pursuit. Danny covered his own ears in pain, the sound wasn't very loud but it made his ears ring like crazy, rattling him down to the base of his skull. The girl turned and fled into the door quickly.

Danny turned to see her leave, the sound stopped but his head still hurt. The ghosts looked dazed as well, but now they could attack again. They began firing their ecto guns wildly, only now they had no aim at all, they just fired at whatever they could see, some even hit each other.

A shot grazed Danny's arm, he knew he couldn't stay here. if he did Walker's ghosts would recover faster than he could and slap him in a cell, and knowing walker he would add some things so he couldn't use his human half to escape like last time.

He glanced at the open, still glowing yellow door, it was fading. With a hurried kick he flew straight at it, hoping it wasn't going to be one of those time travel portals again. The door closed behind him, but he didn't notice, he ended up too busy trying to hold onto his lunch.

Wherever he was it was spinning with every color you could think of in every pattern and then some, sucking him through like a vacuum sucks up dirt, and with no control of where he was going. He felt his stomach churn, his body felt went numb, and darkness was tugging at him. What in the world was going on?

He slammed into something, something soft, he managed to glimpse long white hair before passing out.

***8***

The girl felt her weight return. The light around her began to fade; she flipped herself so she was going feet first and slid out of the portal. Below her she could see a huge lake a small castle sitting on a peninsula of rock overlooking the east side, above her the world darkened sky shined with stars in patterns not found on earth.

She judged the distance and reached into herself and called on the dark. Shadows around her moved, gathering and hardening into a vast blanket beneath her. Gravity had a hold of her now as she dropped out of the sky and into the black net. She concentrated as she lowered herself slowly; the ground was still a ways off.

She had barely started her descent when something raced past her, fire ripped through the dark net beneath her causing her to drop faster. She quickly focused on the spots holding her up, glancing at where the flame had come from, down on the swampy shore of the lake a tall creature resembling a catfish on two thick legs glared up at her. His hands held a flame ready to throw at the being in the sky. He threw back his arm to throw.

She scoffed as she set her power into the darkness, casting a shadow so large it blotted out the stars behind her. She sent it at the creature with a thrust of her hand, there was a whoosh and three things happened.

First; her shadow surrounded the creature, snuffing out the attack as it did. The fish face flinching as he suddenly saw nothing but blackness around him.

Second; the portal behind her closed, spitting out a shape as it did. The girl's eyes widened as she realized it was a young boy, alive and unconscious.

And finally; something slammed into her from the side, moving fast. Her eyes landed on a figure flying through the air, he looked like an owl of sorts dressed in white robes and a string of green beads around his neck. He glared at her as he fired wind from his hands crying out, "Wind slam!"

The girl raised her hand hardening the shadow around her, the current of wind dissipated. She didn't have time for this; she turned her attention to the figure falling through the air, sending another shadow to catch him. The owl creature used this to attack her again. Green fist shapes raced towards her and the two stowaways, she moved the shadow sending the boy harmlessly out of the way, but got hit herself. The bundle in her hand dropped from her grip.

She reached out to grab it with another shadow, but there was a torrent of water that slammed into her from nowhere. The fish creature had attacked her again; the darkness that had surrounded him was gone. The bird creature aimed another wind attack at her, causing her to lose her grip on the shadows supporting her. She began to fall, she screamed out at the creature that dared attack her with the same rippling sound she had used on the ghosts before. Both clutched their heads trying to block the resonating sound in their heads. The girl stopped, turning her attention herself and to the figure falling out of the sky. A black net catching them both and lowering them at a safe pace, they landed in the long grass far from each other. The girl lowered her hood revealing long braided brown hair. She got up to reach the two in the grass. A flame caught her off guard singeing her as it stopped her path. She turned with narrow eyes to see the fish creature coming towards her. He smiled spitting out a stream of boiling water. She ducked out of harm but still ended up soaked with mud.

"You're an interesting Overworlder, but not very strong are you?" he said in a bubbling growl.

The girl stood straight, "So you are not an Overworlder of Perim?"

"_There_ you are _intruder_." The owl creature was back, landing with a loud thump, he turned to see the fish creature and hissed, "Nauthalax, I should've known you'd be here too, filthy underworlder."

The girl stood still as the two creatures eyed each other, disgust painted all over their faces. The girl slowly called upon her powers and began wrapping the shadows around herself so she disappeared from sight. Not much sooner after she had done this the creatures attacked each other.

One with fire, the other with wind.

The battle between them gave her enough cover to flee for it, headed for where her portal stowaway lay. She found him near a patch of reeds still out for the count. He looked to be a human of around fifteen or sixteen with raven black hair and pale skin, he wore a pair of jeans, red tennis shoes and a grey shirt with black trim to it and a red jacket marked with the common figure of a ghost colored in black; from the look of it he was unarmed. She reached for him, noticing a second figure laying not too far from him. This one was a girl, possibly the same age wearing a long red tunic with a dark grey overcoat, black leggings and ankle reach boots, she even had a bag of some kind strapped to her back, her hair was silver as moonlight held back by a leather strap and a short braid reaching her shoulders, but the most striking thing about the girl was the pair of black raven wings folded awkwardly behind her.

The masked girl reached her power out to them, feeling their energies, now her curiosity reversed, the girl felt like most creatures she had come across before. She had an aura that wasn't human but it wasn't overly powerful either. However, she did seem to have something about her that was close to magic.

The boy however was brimming with a feel that was human and yet not, an otherworldly sort of power that made her wonder if her own abilities were mistaken and he wasn't human at all..

The girl frowned as she slipped towards the boy's side, his skin was colder than it should be, but he was breathing and unhurt so far as she could tell. Good. She carefully picked him up, flinching as a fire attack from the battling creatures came a little close. She eased him up onto her back carefully and wrapped him in her shadow to keep him from slipping off. She moved to tend to the other one.

The winged one didn't stay asleep long; as soon as she was touched by the gentle fingers her eyes snapped open revealing a brilliant gold color, staring madly around her. Scooting back when she saw the masked figure before her.

She held out a hand to the winged girl speaking softly, "You need to get out of here, can you fly with those wings?"

The raven winged girl stared at her a moment; the masked girl frowned underneath, Something about this Tengu caught her attention. There was something clinging to this girl, a second aura on top of her own that didn't quite seem to match up and yet fit perfectly, like a puzzle piece of a different picture. The girl made a mental note to find out more about this girl when she could, that aura could mean she wasn't from here either.

The raven winged girl looked around a bit, a shot of green hummed past exploding as it hit the ground. Both girls were thrown back as a result. The masked one having to bring up a shadow net to cushion the fall, the winged one simply took off into the air with a yelp. She circled once and flew off as the owl man chased after her.

The masked girl checked the boy's positioning on her back. Looks like the fall didn't hurt him, that was good. She then reached her powers out, 'feeling' for the fish face. She found him swimming under the lake, great. Just great. She felt out the winged girl, she was flying out west, and quickly too. She was going to have to find out about _her_ later.

The girl rushed off towards the castle with bursting speed, the boy on her back moaned.

"Just don't get sick kid, I'll explain everything later."

***8***

Danny felt queasy, downright sick to his stomach. He knew he had passed out at some point and he knew he had fallen. With dull surprise he realized he wasn't hurt, something had grabbed him and lowered him to the ground. He lay there a while, too sick to get up. His eyes fluttered open a moment, he was surrounded by long grass and the smell of wet earth, it was night time, and he could tell from the dark and moonlight on the ground. But he noticed something else. A figure lying just across from him, a girl with white hair and…were those wings? He heard something, voices and something like an explosion. Now footsteps, someone was there. Someone with a simple white fox mask, the girl he had followed…from where again? His head was spinning; the girl picked him up onto her back gently.

"You need to get out of here, can you fly with those wings?" The masked girl was saying, Danny heard another explosion, he felt himself get thrown back, and land on something airy, he felt a shiver of cold through his body. His eyes opened a little seeing the winged girl fly off in the light of what may have been a firework, the wet ground soon snuffed it out.

The girl carrying him shifted him into a more comfortable position on her back, he then felt like there was something probing around him, he got the distinct impression that he was on military radar somehow. Maybe like his parent's ghost tracker.

His parents, how long had he been out? It had to be late, his parents would be worried. His sister could cover for him no problem, but sooner or later they were going to ask questions. He groaned aloud, right after they 'killed' him.

The girl heard him, she was moving now, fast. She sounded worried, "Just don't get sick kid, I'll explain everything later."

Sick? Oh yeah, his head was still spinning, how could he have forgotten that? Darkness soon filled his mind, calm, refreshingly still darkness. He sank against the girl's shoulders, falling asleep and hoping he wasn't going to throw up.

***8***

A great blue skinned creature in dark blue robes was sitting in his study reading, clear brown eyes looking over a pointed humanoid nose and long white beard at the large book in his hands. On the desk he had out several sheets of paper on which he occasionally would scribble something relative to his work. Outside the door he heard a loud knocking, a female voice called out, "Najerin, I know your there, let me inside quick!"

The old man of a creature jerked his head up, eyes widening. That voice, was familiar…were had he heard it before?

He stood up from his desk and proceeded through the hallways towards the large wooden front doors of his home. With a touch of his mugician's power they opened to reveal a human youth with a chestnut braid reaching her shoulders, her boots covered in mud and her face turning red, her white mask was shoved onto her head like a hat. A black haired boy was on her back out cold and looking pale in the face.

The girl smiled as she panted out a greeting, "You… look good Kid… it's been a while hasn't it?"

Najerin's eyes were wide with surprise and disbelief, he returned the smile and ushered the pair inside, "Welcome to Lake Ken-I-Po, old friend. Come in and tell me where you have gone this time?"

The girl gave a small laugh, "Old? You're the one who looks his age Kid."

Najerin smiled, shaking his head as he let them in and closed the door.

"I'm going to have to get used to that all over again." He sighed.

**Hova: ^ ^(holding up a noisemaker and sparklers) HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY EVERYBODY! (blows klaxon)**

**Kakashi: -_- i know 'Half-blood' needed work, but really?**

**Danny: (pats Kakashi's back) Don't worry it's not like your story is going to be deleted for good on the authors computer or anything.**

**Hova: o_o ? what are you guys doing here anyway?**

**Danny: ^ ^ Were here to help announce the winner of the poll.**

**Hova: 0_0 uh... you both didn't have to come to this guys. i mean it's pretty obvious who won here.**

**Danny: ^ ^ yeah but we wanted to hear the full results. how many people voted? How many readers did we get?**

**Kakashi: That's actually a good question. there were two separate Previews set up so more people could read and vote. how many actually read them?**

**Hova: (Ears go flat) Er...**

**Both boys: WELL! ^ ^**

**Hova: -_-...****165 for Preview's under Danny chaotic crossover and 9 for the one under Naruto. also there was no actual reviews for both. and of the thousands that visit my HTTYD fiction...possibly all of them are more interested in only that kind of story.**

**Kakashi: _ _ (slumped in corner) 9...only 9...only 9...just 9...why 9? why...?**

**Danny: 0_0 so I'm guessing that i won by a landslide...?**

**Hova: ^ ^! (backing up slowly) yeah...6 out of 8 people (runs for it)**

**Danny: (eyes glowing) THREE MONTHS AND ONLY 8 PEOPLE VOTED? I THOUGHT YOU WERE GOOD AT WRITING 0_0...wow she's fast.**

**Kakashi: 9... readers... how am I gonna tell the others?**

**(Phone rings, Danny answers)**

**Hova: _I can, it was a bad poll question apparently._**

**Danny: TT you stupid dog!**

**Hova: _I'm a wolf thanks. Danny Phantom is copyright to Butch Hartman for Nick. and the world of Chaotic is copyrighted 4kids by Bardel entertainment. and author's notes in this project will proceed in similar manner._**

**_please enjoy the next chapter everyone...uh, Danny could you fly Kakashi home for me?_**

**Danny: TT (hangs up) winner with 6 votes? that's just pathetic...**


	2. Where in theworld?

Chapter 2- Where in the...world?

Danny woke up on a large cot, in a room filled with shelf upon shelf of leather bound books and scrolls. There was a large fire filling the room with warmth and the smell of shouldering herbs, and when he looked around he could see a few large backed chairs and a wooden desk covered in quills and papers.

He tried to sit up only to realize he felt like he had just finished a marathon across Europe and fought with Pariah dark for a second time, his head was still spinning. The door opened as he tried again. A large hand eased him back onto the cot gently.

"Don't try to move so much, you're still weak from the portal's effects." An aged voice full of concern reached the boy's ears. He stared up into the dark eyes of an old man with blue skin and darker colored robes; the beard was so thick you couldn't see his mouth move when he spoke.

_Kind of looks like merlin from those Camelot stories,_ Danny thought with dull interest, he began to fight to get his head to stop spinning, "Wha-where am I? who are you?"

The old blue man smiled bringing a chair forward with a wave of his hand and sitting next to the boy, "My name is Najerin, this is my home on Lake Ken-I-Po, and you've been asleep for nearly an entire day. Fourteen and a half hours if you wish to be accurate."

Danny blinked, registering information, "Lake …Ken-what? Wait, you said fourteen hours? Oh no, my parents are gonna freak."

Najerin held up his hand as the boy tried to get up again, "I'm sure such problems are being taken care of as we speak. You need not worry about anything at the moment save your health, child."

Danny moaned getting another look at the creature, _He's no ghost; my powers would've detected that if he was, but he's obviously not human either. So what the heck __is__ he?_ "What do you want with me?"

Najerin raised his brow at such a question, "There is nothing I could possibly want of you. Accept perhaps for you to explain why you came here."

Danny thought back, his mind still muddled from that freaky portal, _that's right, in the ghost zone, Walker and his goons were after a girl,_ "I followed a girl through a portal, after that everything's a blur."

Najerin nodded, putting his hands together like a detective thinking over information, "that sounds about right, accept why you were in a world full of spirits and yet you're a human."

Danny's eyes must've betrayed panic at this, he said nothing as Najerin held up his hand again for quiet, "You don't have to explain why you were in such a place, nor do you have to explain why you followed Ren though a portal to the overworld.

"Before you ask, yes it's not earth, your home. You're in a world called Perim, a place basically split into four territories, the current one you are in is called the overworld, where my tribe of the same name reside. The person who brought you here is called Ren the traveler, a creature who can pass through multiple worlds and dimensions, though that's nearly all I really know for certain about her."

Danny sat up slowly, his head still spinning, "So that girl…in the mask."

Najerin nodded, "…was Ren, and when you followed her here you passed through a space between everything and nothing. According to her this has negative effects on one's stamina if they have never done so before."

The blue creature got up and pulled down three cups from the mantle while pulling a strange looking coffee pot from the fire. He poured it equally and passed it over to the boy with some kind of levitation. Danny felt soothed by the aromatic smell of the semi clear brew, he watched the blue…wizard, he decided…take a draught before having a small sip himself. It tasted a little like a mild fruit tea, Earthy even. His head started to clear almost immediately. He glanced around at the small library.

"So where's the girl, err, Ren I mean?"

Najerin glanced out the window, "She went to take care of a few things, you're in my care until she gets back. No need to worry, young…"

"…Danny. My name's Danny." The boy said taking another sip.

Najerin nodded, "Daniel is it?"

Danny shook his head with a frown, "just Danny. I don't answer to my full name."

Najerin gave a smile, "Few humans do, at least to my knowledge."

A smoke of blue escaped the boy's mouth, he shivered as a rush of cold ran down his spine; something was coming, something ghostly. Danny gave a worried glance to Najerin, he sat without any hint that he knew about it. And Danny wasn't sure how a guy like him who was obviously _not_ a ghost would react to someone who _was_. He tried to get up, to move, it was instinct.

Najerin saw the boy shiver and try to stand up, he walked over placing a hand on the boy's shoulder, "you're still weak, you need to rest."

"Listen to him McRuby," a voice said from outside, Danny turned to see the masked girl, seeming to stand in the air outside; she opened the window and stepped inside. Taking off her mask as she did so, "It's not like you've ever gone through a gate like _that_ before."

Danny felt the cold in his body fade as she walked in. it was as if whatever he had sensed had vanished. The girl eagerly took the third cup and took a deep drink.

"AH, that's good stuff. You ok kid? You may be recovering from the gate but now you look like you've seen a ghost." She stared at him, ember eyes seemed as if looking straight through him.

Danny stuttered, "Uh, well…y-you…w-window, you were standing on…"

The girl gave a sudden laugh, "Oh I see, don't worry, that's the only ghostly thing about me. You see I can use shadows to 'fly' at night, and it was still dark enough to use them, so why not? In the day time I have to be closer to the ground, not to mention tactful. Cant have pillars of black in broad daylight all the time. gets you where your going but wears you out fast. meanwhile at night making tightropes to jump from is a breeze."

She flopped down on the desk taking another draft from her cup. Danny giving her a quizzical stare, she ignored him, instead turning to Najerin, "So did you get anything from him for me or did you just talk to him?"

Najerin took a sip from his own cup, sitting back in the chair once more, "I didn't find it necessary to extract information in such a manner. However I don't think young Danny will be able to lie to us either."

Danny's confusion grew, what did he mean by 'extract information' in _what_ manner? And what kind of girl could control shadows? Then again he knew a ghost back home with a personal shadow that followed him around on his motorcycle. But it was obvious her shadow weren't alive, so how could she do it?

Ren, turned to look at him, "So kid do you know anybody with white hair and black wings? Female somebody?"

Danny shook his head, "not really, why?"

Ren sighed, rolling her eyes to the celling, she hoped herself up onto Najerin's desk swinging her legs over the edge, "And I didn't have any luck finding her. I just know she headed out west and she dropped from my radar somewhere over that scrubland area, Broken edge I think it's called now."

Najerin thought a moment, "If it helps, I have some friends in the Mipedian tribe, perhaps they would be willing to help."

Ren frowned as she considered this. Danny, feeling stronger, stood up and went to the window. His eyes widened at the sight, "This is a lake house."

Ren gave him a quick correction, then ignoring Danny's jaw drop, "Castle actually. And I don't think that's the best idea, bringing in the Calvary, I just need to adjust my tactics. But I would appreciate a heads up to those friends of yours, I don't need any mention about my concerns though and we don't need to attract to much attention from those Chaotic players you told me about."

The blue wizard nodded glancing at Danny, who was trying to see more of the castle through the window, "Will you be taking this one with you?"

Ren shook her head, "Sorry Kid, I gotta get to work finding Raven wings and a spot for opening another gateway without causing a rip while making sure the vortex didn't get to messed up or tear anything when they slipped through in the first place. I can't add babysitting to that list."

Danny whipped his head around at the mention of babysitting, "I can take care of myself."

Najerin adopted a look of concern, "I'm sure in _your_ home you can, but this is Perim, a world you know nothing about. As such you would be in constant danger if you tried traveling on your own without any means of getting to safety."

Ren nodded, "Besides it's not like you can keep him here."

Najerin raised an eye brow at her, questioning her statement. She counted the reasons off on her fingers, "One) you're the most powerful muge in Perim now, I doubt you can babysit any more freely than I can. Two) he's a kid, curiosity is going to get the better of him sooner or later, and that often gets kids into trouble. Believe me I know."

She gave a sly smile at the last comment and continued, "And last of all) you can't keep him cooped up in a castle all day everyday till I get the darn gate open. It ties in with reason two; he'll find a way out if it means something better to do, and he'll be curious if there is any out there. So when you add all that up, of course I wasn't going to just _dump_ him on you. I'm smarter than that."

Najerin conceded the point, "I'm a little glad of that actually. So what do you suggest?"

Ren shrugged, Danny frowned feeling somewhat left out. Of course he knew Najerin was right, he knew nothing about this place at all. And the more they kept mentioning things he didn't understand the more confused he was getting.

"It's been ages, literally, since I was last in your world. You'll have to think of something."

Najerin sighed, "Well, I suppose he could stay in Kiru city for a while. It has plenty for him to do without getting into _too_ much trouble."

Ren smiled, "Kiru? I almost wondered if the place was still standing."

Danny waved his hands, "Hello? I'm still here you guys. And I have no idea what you're talking about, I mean, what's a Muge? Who are the Chaotic Players? And where's Kiru city?"

Ren smiled as she placed a hand on the boy's shoulder, she slipped an amulet around his neck, "You'll find out, I have to go check on something, so why don't you hang onto this for me alright?"

Danny inspected the medallion; it seemed to be made of some kind of copper shaped like a star inside a wolf paw print. There were letters stitched into the blue ribbon threaded through the top, now around his neck. He tucked it into his shirt.

"Sure… I can do that."

Ren's eyes narrowed, "Don't ever take it off, if you lose it I'll make sure you regret every minute until the day you pay me back for it in full."

The girl's eyes seemed to grow larger as they held his gaze, her presence seemed to fill the room so she stood taller than should've been possible. Danny nodded with a gulp, "O-ok. Don't lose it then."

Ren stepped back breaking into a smile, "Good, well I'm off. I'll see you later Kid. So long Danny- boy."

Najerin shook his head as she left through the door and vanished from his detection, "I'll never get used to that."

Danny simply let out a sigh, sinking to the floor in relief.

****8****

at Broken edge, a Chaotic player was out on a scan quest, a tall blonde boy wearing an old aviator's jacket and headphones around his neck. He swept his scanner back and forth to locate any nearby creatures. So far nothing, like nobody was around. He sighed, "so much for looking into new scans. Maybe I'll have better luck at Skeleton springs."

{_Boy…}_

The player perked up, looking around, confused, "Uh hello?"

No answer, just wind through the trees. He shook his head thinking he might've been hearing things. He was about to punch in a location when he heard it again.

{_So long…}_

He chuckled nervously, "Ok who's doing that? Chance? Jack is that you?"

{_It's been so long…}_ the voice sounded female. The player checked his creature locater, none around. So it had to be another player.

"Ok Cassie, I bet that's you. Come on out and quit it will you?" he tapped his foot, becoming angry, "You guys know I don't like these kinda things in Perim. Save it for the Halloween bash would you?"

{_Can you hear it boy? The sound of breaking?}_

The player flinched; the voice was right behind him sounding closer than before. He turned seeing nothing but the breeze through the trees, and his own breath. He shivered, when did it get so cold?

"Come on this isn't funny. Who's doing that? Cassie? Jackie are you helping her? Marcie?"

A wafting cold rushed over him like a veil being pulled over him, he turned to look seeing nothing.

{_It's been so long…so long since we were together. Since that time…so long.}_

The voice was a lot closer now, he turned to try and see who was there, his breath looking like thick smoke, his voice reflecting how angry and scared he was getting, "LOOK I DON'T CARE WHO YOU ARE, JUST STOP IT ALREADY!"

Something cold grabbed his shoulder, like a hand, a clawed one. He turned to see who was there, slowly, seeing a white mass with an orange core standing behind him, two orange slits for eyes staring at him. The player felt all of the color drain from his face. The thing spoke in an echoing voice now so close it was like he heard it in his head.

{_Breaking…we … replace… you hear it boy?}_

The player screamed pressing a button on his scanner he vanished in a flash of coded blue and white. The thing stood there confused, she looked to the sky, {_we replace…soon...}_

****8****

Danny walked along the lake side waiting for Najerin; the blue creature had said the outdoors would do him some good before they left for Kiru city. The young teen didn't mind really, out here alone gave him a better chance to straighten out his thoughts.

First off: questions

1) How did he get here? a stranger in a white mask who could set off his ghost sense had somehow brought him here.

2) Could he call his parents and let them know he was ok? No, his cell was fully charged but getting no signals at all.

3) Was he safe in another world? he was going to spend some time figuring that one out. He still wasn't sure what kind of world this was.

4) Did they have ghosts here or were they part of someone's powers like Ren's…whatever it was? No idea.

5) Ren had said going through a portal to another world could have side effects like when he had passed out, was there any others? That's the other reason he was out here.

Being half ghost had enough problems, being in another world with no idea how anything worked here would be killer. He knew his ghost sense still worked so that had to mean he still had most of his powers. He decided to go through the list, discreetly.

He started with transforming, he could use some of his ghost powers in human form easily enough, but he figured if he couldn't turn into Phantom then his ghost powers were probably on the fritz.

He reached for his cold core, the center where his ghost energy was held while he was human, and brought it up; the felt the familiar rush of comfortable cold run through his body as two moonlit rings appeared running up and down his body, altering his form. His clothes vanished, replaced with a black hazmat suit, with white gloves boots and collar, a white flaming letter D on his chest. His hair became snowy white and his eyes a toxic glowing green. When the changes were complete the silver rings vanished. Danny floated a little off the ground, smiling.

"Well this is a good sign." No sooner had he said that when the rings appeared again, this time they were green like his ectoplasm attacks, sweeping over him again without his influence.

Danny felt a jolt like electricity as his ghost form changed once more, falling to the ground in pain when it was over. He looked at himself eventually rushing to the lake for a look at his reflection.

Danny stared in disbelief at the white arm guards, the thick black headband on his brow, the black samurai pants and white trimmed shirt, the white socks in black tie on sandals and a green pouch tied to his waist with had a black letter D, even the medallion Ren had given him had changed, it now looked a little like a silver Olympic medal with his letter D carved into it, and it seemed to be stitched into his shirt collar like a large clasp. He was even more shocked to see his eyes, the color had solidified through the whole socket and his pupils had turned into slits like a dragon's, or a cat at night.

"What… just happened?" he said aloud, looking himself over with a spin, as he did so something fell out of his pocket, a piece of paper.

He picked it up and noticed a certain ghost's handwriting:

_**If you are reading this, your ghost form has successfully been altered,**_

_**I made these changes at the request of an old friend for your own good,**_

_**Do not worry; your powers are still the same at best,**_

_**When you come back to the Ghost Zone, see me about changing 'Phantom' back,**_

_**Until then, try to stay out of trouble and don't worry about your parents. It's been taken care of.**_

_**Clockwork**_

"So Clockwork knew I'd be heading for another world? I knew he watched over all of time back home but this…this is just weird." Danny sighed and looked himself over more calmly, "I look like a vampire ninja from one of Sam's movies."

At the thought of that, he ran a finger inside his mouth and carefully felt around, he sighed with relief when he found no fangs or altered teeth.

"Fangs like Vlad, now that's a scary thought."

He reached for the warmth inside his core, for his human half and brought it up, the silver rings appeared again sweeping over him in a rush of warmth, vanishing once the transformation was reversed. Danny looked himself over again, now human, blue jeans red jacket, black hair, blue eyes, tennis shoes. Just as before.

With a nod he sat down on the nearest dry patch of ground, "Well at least he didn't mess with my human half."

"Daniel."

The boy jumped to his feet so fast he nearly slipped in the grass, he turned to see a blue figure flying straight for him in a swirl of blue, Najerin landed beside him holding a small bag in one hand and looking around.

Danny gulped inwardly like he had done so often with his parents, how much had this guy seen? "So we were going now or…?"

"I thought I sensed the presence of another creature, one I didn't recognize. You didn't see anything did you?" the blue man asked.

Danny did a metal face slap, just like Danny could sense other ghosts of course this guy could sense other people. Why not? Outwardly he put on his best curious face and shook his head, looking around for good measure, "No, I didn't see anyone but me."

It wasn't a lie really, he was the only one there, and although his new ghost form was unfamiliar, it was still him, one and the same. Najerin raised a brow as if concerned, but didn't say anything further about it. instead he began floating in the air again.

"Well then, I'll have to look into it later," he waved his hand in a small circle, Danny was a little surprised when he began floating in the air right behind Najerin, "Let's get going, tell me if you start to feel dizzy, I hear some humans have a bad reaction to heights."

Danny smiled; like a half ghost who flew around all the time in high places could get air sick.

***8***

**Hova: So Ren, would you like to say anything to our readers? ^ ^**

**Ren: (slips mask over her face) feel free to drop a review, I love the attention.**

**oh and I'm one of Hova's OC characters so I'm copyrighted to her. TT somehow that sounds wrong, and I thought the winged girl and were your only OCs for...**

**Hova: -_- don't worry about it.**


	3. Chapter 3- Kiru

Danny's mind did a little flip when he got his first look at Kiru city, the place looked more like a fortress from afar, up close it was like a walled metropolis. Like something out of a medieval action movie or something, he couldn't help but think of what his friends would think if they could see this. He knew Sam would probably love it, 'would be better if the walls were black but that's just me.' she would say.

As they descended for a landing, Najerin noticed how natural this seemed to the boy. It was almost as if the boy had done this before. Odd considering Ren had mentioned he was not a Chaotic player, which would've been the only reason for him to even enjoy the feeling.

They touched down just inside the city gates, Najerin let the boy down just before his feet touched the ground, surprised when Danny landed on his feet with no trouble. Most would stumble when he let them down that way.

Danny whistled when he saw the towering stone walls, high as small skyscrapers, "that must've taken ages to build."

"A few decades, for the wall at least." The blue mage said absently. A few guards in blue uniforms greeted Najerin. Danny noticed all the creatures walking around like people in a mall or in a city. So weird, and yet the fact his ghost sense wasn't acting up made it refreshingly normal.

"Are you going to stare all day?" Najerin asked, Danny's attention snapped back as he realized Najerin had started down the street without him. He rushed to fall in line next to him, his eyes still wandering around taking everything in.

"I'm taking you to the arsenal first, a player I know sometimes works there in exchange for scans." The blue creature explained, "And if said player is not there, the creature in charge should be willing to keep an eye on you until I finish making arrangements within the city."

Danny nodded, eyes wondering towards a street set up like a sort of strip mall, creatures were selling things like food, clothes, bits of armor, bags, books, scrolls, there was even a stall for household items like from back home. He wondered why these creatures would have the need for those things. he also wonderd if they had anything he could use to contact Ren, or maybe try and send a message back home. Let everyone know he was ok. Clockwork may have altered his ghost form, but that didn't mean he had bothered to arrange for Danny to show up at home before he left or anything.

They arrived at a square building not far from the wall, a few guards stood outside standing to attention as the pair past them. Danny averted his eyes as he noticed he was getting a few stares from them, a familiar hatred stare like what he used to get from the adults after walker had framed him for kidnapping the mayor a few months ago. Or how dash had looked at him when the most popular girl in school had been 'dating' him (really a ghost trying to get her boyfriend jealous)

Once through the doors Danny suddenly felt a little uneasy as he noticed several weapons resembling rifles, shields and lances stacked neatly along every wall in row after row. Being on the wrong end of a weapon before, these made him a little nervous.

Najerin noticed a little creature in a dark blue robe scribbling busily on a parchment with a feather quill, muttering to himself. Danny couldn't help but think the guy looked kinda like a green monk of some sort, complete with a little gem on his forehead. The mage stood behind the creature and cleared his throat.

The creature groaned, sounding highly annoyed, "This had better be important, I have a lot of work to do after getting that last batch of pyro-blasters cleaned and reorganized. And the cy-lances…."

As he turned around, he went from being an annoyed little busybody to a blubbering suck up. He gulped, nearly dropping his quill and papers, "Oh, Najerin, my humblest apologies I-I-I thought you m-might've been someone else. Happens all the time really, n-not that it ever interferes with my work here I am very organized as you can..."

"Hello Bodol, I apologize for interrupting your work,"

The little green creature shook his head violently, "Not at all, not at all, anything for the Overworld's most powerful and wise mugician. Is there anything you need?"

Danny rolled his eyes easily recognizing the suck up act, ever since Dash had started doing it to Phantom it had lost most of it's humor. Najerin simply nodded, "An old friend of mine visited me this morning, and I need someone to keep an eye on her companion for a while. Is Tomas here at the moment?"

Bodol frowned, "Tom? Watch your friend's companion? With all due respect, shouldn't you ask a respectable _creature_ to look after him or her?"

Najerin motioned towards Danny, the boy gave a small wave and a smile. Bodal's eye twitched slightly at the sight of him.

"I think one human is perfectly capable of watching another for a few hours, don't you?" the muge said as-a-matter-o-factly. "Unless you'd be up for the task, since your so _efficient_…"

Bodol looked the boy over with some distaste, frowning and turning back to the shelf, "Afraid I'm much too busy right now, so I must sadly decline. Tom is working in the next wing with Oryx, restocking our vlard shards. Unless he's gotten himself a new scan and left already."

Najerin nodded and headed to the next wing. Danny followed, hearing Bodol mutter something that sounded like, "Chaotic players are becoming more pesky all the time, it's a wonder we get _anything_ done around here."

***8***

Tom looked up with a smile as he saw Najerin approach, he put the crystal he was holding away and greeted the creature like an old friend, "Hey Najerin, what brings you here?"

"An important errand and you."

Before Tom could ask he noticed the boy standing behind him, scruffy black hair and clear blue eyes stared at him curiously, his red jacket zipped up and hands thrust into his jean pockets. The boy gave him a small smile.

Tom looked questionably at the tall muge, "Who's he? Another Chaotic player?"

The muge looked to the celling with a cough, "Actually, no. He is a special case involving an old friend of mine. I was hoping you or another creature could keep an eye on him for me while I run an errand here in town."

Tom nodded, "I can show him around the city for a while. But… if he's not a Chaotic player, then how did he…?"

"As I said, he is a special case involving an old friend." The muge said, cutting the player off, "on a separate note I'd like the mystery of his arrival to remain as such."

Tom frowned a little in disappointment, basically Najerin was saying who the kid really was and why he was here was for Najerin to know, and for players like him to never find out. Normally he could protest the issue or dig around for the answer like he always did, but this time sneaking around didn't seem necessary, after all the secret in question wasn't something that would have clues lying around or in a creature's conversations like so many times before. _That_ much was obvious.

He turned to the boy now, feeling a little like he was looking in a mirror, accept his reflection looked thinner and slightly paler and was wearing different clothes. He stuck his hand out with a smile, "I'm Tom majors, and you?"

The boy grasped his hand in a grip that was stronger than Tom first expected, "Daniel Fenton, but I prefer Danny."

Tom flinched a little, man this kid's hands were cold. Danny let go and shoved both hands into his pockets with an easy going smile, "Sorry, I've been told I have bad circulation, so I'm slightly colder than normal, especially my hands."

Tom smiled back, "My mom's always said cold hands often belong to good people."

Danny gave a small laugh, "She sounds nice, my mom's usually going on with my dad about their latest experiments. Sometimes in the kitchen."

Tom threw a questioning glance, "Experiments?"

Danny shrugged as if it was no big deal, "Scientist parents, what you gonna do?"

Najerin gave a smile addressing the boys, "I'll be in the palace at sunset, come see me then. Oh and Daniel, try to stay out of trouble."

Danny blinked at the advice then shrugged, "I've got tom with me, what trouble could we possibly get into?"

Najerin shook his head and began to leave, "More than you know, you are children after all."

8*8

As the two boys walked the streets chatting away like old friends catching up, a figure watched them from atop a high building, smiling.

"So that human is a friend of Najerin eh? Nice to know he hasn't limited himself to just the Overworld and necessities."

Ren allowed herself a chuckle as she slid on her mask. Almost instantly her body morphed, golden orange fur covered her body, her ears became large triangles sitting higher on her head, her face became elongated, nose and mouth joining closer in the process, her legs altered until it was more like that of an animal, ending in a sand colored paw, her hands followed suit, her palms thickening into flexible pads, a long tail sprouted at the base of her spine, covered in bottle brush thick fur ending in a black tip. Her clothes altered as well, becoming a long sleeved green tunic and black shorts, the shoes on her feet becoming leather wrappings on her ankles, and as for her mask, it became one with her face, turning it a glossy white from above the eyes to the bottom of her chin, her now black nose twitching.

With a leap she slipped into a nearby alleyway into the shadows. Humans who could port from their home world to Perim, all with the use of little machines called scanners; that was something to look into. But first things first.

8*8

Kaz's feet were killing him, he couldn't remember the last time he had to walk so much in his life, not even during a school field trip into the woods when he was in grade school.

He'd been walking around Broken edge for hours, going so far as to miss a match in the dromes for a peek at this ghost thing he'd heard about. Several players hadn't believed poor shaken up bruiser when he ported back to Chaotic, eventually his friends were able to convince him it might've been a prank by some creature. But Kaz, who had overheard the whole thing thought otherwise.

See he had seen some strange things with his friends before, a Mepidian ghost named Owaiki, a creature frozen in ice for earth's equal of five thousand years, a whole location hidden by a mirage and guarded by a friendly creature who could shapeshift, but Bruiser's story had struck a chord of interest with him. And he intended to scope out the place for any sign of it. so far nothing.

He pulled out a small notebook with a hastily drawn map of broken edge and a small pencil, he X out another spot and picked another direction, pulling out his scanner's creature detector. Nobody there.

He headed off, "A creature that appeared in a fog, doesn't show up on the detectors, has clawed hands, orange eyes, a semi-clear shapless body and whispers things. shouldn't be hard to find right?"

He kicked at a stone frustrated, "Yeah that's what thought hours ago."

He kicked another one into the bushes, this time hearing a yelp, "Ow!"

Kaz froze, glancing at his little red device, the thing was still set for creature detection and…it now showed a distinct orange dot showing there was one close by. Close enough to be whoever had been hit with the rock he had kicked. His expression flashed disappointment as he turned to see a girl with white hair and large black wings rubbing one eye. She looked up almost firghtend, her expression instantly hardend into anger as her unbruised eye glared at him.

"Didn't your mother teach you to be careful, you could've taken an eye out with a stunt like that." She growled.

Kaz held his hands up, "Sorry, I didn't see you there, honest mistake really."

The girl's hardened expression faded, her wings folded behind her to where she almost looked like a normal human girl, "Well as long as you're sorry. right?"

Kaz nodded, his mind whirling as he realized something, "I don't think I've ever seen you before. Are you on a mission for Maxxor?"

The winged girl frowned, "Never heard of him. And if for anyone, I'm on a mission to find my way back home."

"Home… where?"

The girl blinked her eyes, checking if she could still see out of the hurting one, "In the mountains where else?"

Now it was Kaz's turn to frown, "you know there are a lot of mountains in Perim, you'll have to be more specific if you ask anybody for directions."

The girl flinched, she looked at him with fearful confusion written all over her face, "Perim?"

"Yeah, that's what this whole place is called." Kaz held up his hands gesturing everything around them. The girl blinked, her face nearly unreadable, mouth opened and closed several times before she sank to her knees facing the ground and shivering. Kaz heard a soft gasping, surprise and confusion crossed his face as he realized she was crying, he had never seen a creature do that before. he'd seen them get scared or worried but to actualy cry…

"Um, hey... are you ok?"

The girl sobbed louder, "N-no, I… I don't belong here."

Kaz was considering patting her or something, not being familer with this kind of distress in a creature from any of the Perim tribes. He barely reached out his hand to touch her shaking shoulders when…

{_Replace…}_

Both of them froze at the sound of the voice, so far away yet sound so close.

{_Replace…}_

As a thought struck him, Kaz checked his scanner; according to **_it_** they were completely alone.

{_Replace soon…breaking…must replace…who?_}

It sounded closer, the winged girl shivered, wrapping her wings around herself, "We need to get out of here, now."

Kaz stood up shaking his head, "Not till I get a good look at this thing. I came all the way out here looking for whatever this thing is and I'm not leaving until I see it."

The girl gripped his arm, tugging him away, "are you crazy? Why? What good would it do to just see this thing?"

Kaz held up his scanner, the air was growing cold, "If I can scan it, maybe I can find out more about it, see what it really is."

{_Do you hear it children?...we must…replace…you…_ }

The winged girl shivered, clutching him tightly around his waist and opening her wings, "I don't want to know what _that_ means."

Kaz gulped as a white mass with orange eyes formed in front of them, the air was now so cold he could see his own breath. The white blob reached out to him, crying out in a female voice, {_Replace….Come….replace…}_

Kaz held up his scanner, and pressed a button, the little device hummed as the thing came closer. He felt it grip his arm, bright orange eyes right up to his face staring into his own brown ones behind red tinged glasses.

Behind him the girl flapped her wings hard, pulling the human up into the air, "You got your look, now let's get out of here."

She flew with a little difficulty above the tree line, the human gripping her for fear of falling. Eyes glanced at the white mass on the ground. He could hear it's voice ringing clear in his head, {_Replace …breaking… close…we must replace...}_

**_******8888****_**

**Hova: ^ ^ Another chapter done, and I recived a review with an interesting statement about another character from the DP series. So with me today is...Wulf.**

**Wulf: (nods, while fiddling with a collar) thank you for inviting me.**

**Hova: ^ ^ my pleasure, so we know you have the ability to 'claw' your way from one world to another. Have you been anywhere besides the ghost zone and it's connecting earth?**

**Wulf: (shakes head) no, chew see, my claws have special power to break open a way between two planes in my world because they are next to each other.**

**Hova: 0 0 you mean because their parallel. I distinctly remember in the event of the disasteroid tucker said that the ghost zone was the flip side of earth. I always took this to being similar to the spirit worlds in other shows, like Bleach and The last Air bender.**

**Wulf: (nods) yes, and because they are close I can make portals easily. does senoria Ren do something like me?**

**Hova: -_- hmm...how to put it simply...in her case she uses a resonating to go from world to world. The catch Beijing she has to not only have an energy reserve with which to open the gate but to also locate the best place for the gate so it closes by itself behind her. Kinda like pulling a needle through cloth, she's the thread, the needle is the energy used to open the gate, and the spot to be sown is the space between worlds she has to keep from breaking. Make sense?**

**Wulf: ...I no sow (scratches at collar) we done? I want to take collar off.**

**Hova: go ahead, I need to get that translator back anyway, it's a...**

**(collar snaps)**

**Hova: 0-0 rental...(faints)**

**Wulf: (pokes her carefully) señorita? Hola, señora Hova? (Looks at broken collar) aie curumba.**


	4. Chapter 4- Flows

As Danny looked around the city he found himself feeling a mix of being freaked out and impressed at how familiar everything was. If it weren't for all the creatures walking around, he could swear the place was another city on earth, a foregoing low tech one but still.

Tom marveled at how little a human in Perim would know about the place, Najerin hadn't been kidding when he said Danny was a special case on coming to Perim; right now they were just wondering the streets. Tom was just explaining about Porting to Perim from earth.

"So let me get this straight, you can be in two places at once?"

Tom nodded, "Earth self and Chaotic self, it's pretty cool."

"Wish I could do that." Danny moaned, remembering the battle he had with Pariah the ghost king, the _only_ time he could ever replicate himself in a fight. Tom gave a small laugh, not knowing what was going through his friend's mind.

"I can't tell you how many times I wished the same thing. One of me on earth while the other is in Perim is one thing, but if I could be in two battle domes at the same time or at school and the arcade on earth, _that_ would be interesting."

Danny wondered otherwise, he had some experience being two people at once, his human half and his ghost half being separate had caused him some problems that time around. But that might have something to do with his personality getting split as well as his human and ghost halves.

A shiver of cold and burst of blue mist from his mouth caused him to flinch, eyes instinctively looking for any signs of trouble. Tom noticed the sudden silence between them, "Are you ok?"

Danny shrugged, seeing nothing out of the ordinary, as far as being on another world full of strange creatures could be called out of the ordinary, "yeah… I'm ok."

Tom wondered if he should change the subject when he heard someone call his name. He looked in surprise as he saw Kaz running up to them.

Kaz gasped as he stopped to catch his breath, "Tom. You won't believe what just happened."

"Friend of yours?" Danny asked.

Kaz looked at Danny just noticing him, His eyes widened, "Tom do you have a twin I don't know about?"

Tom shook his head, smiling, "The resemblance is uncanny right?"

Kaz nodded, shaking his head suddenly, the urgency in his voice was back, "Tom this is serious, I found a new creature at Broken edge."

Tom's eyes widened with excitement, "Where? What happened?"

***8***

Ren ran deep into the Forest of life, a place brimming with natural energy in the overworld. The very trees felt like towering beings watching the forest, strong and alive as they thrived on the energy here. Ren's nose twitched as she moved, feeling stronger with every stride. She smiled to herself, stopping in the branches of a tall tree.

"Got to remember to come back here," she said to herself, "with all the energy around here I could easily make a reserve for later."

She smiled at the thought, closing her eyes and reaching out with her powers. The forest felt like a carpet of living pale energy, flowing regularly up and outwards. What wasn't used by the plants traveled to new places. Spreading to far reaches of Perim, a natural energy indeed.

But she could feel others. Spots as powerful as this one, a similar yellow-green energy to the west felt free and light, a soft red one not too far off to the south felt rippling and powerful, and one orange energy that felt stoic yet ever moving where it needed to be. They all were flowing, regulating life wherever they originated and flowing to places all over. The flows were all mixed up and tangled like strings with no directions and yet they didn't touch. As Ren read the flow she noticed this and realized there was a faint sound connected with the flows, something she could only hear while watching the flow closely. Something was wrong here.

She concentrated harder trying to make sense of it, these energies were important, originating from different points to maintain the life of Perim, but there were places that were…vanishing?

Her power detected something traces of a fifth power, a dark one that touched each somewhere, seeming to come from nowhere. The energy of the forest blocking her from getting a clear view. She opened her eyes, frowning, something stirred in her memory from the last time she was in Perim, by her timeline it was only perhaps ten years ago. She thought back to it, thinking, remembering…

The pale blue of the overworld, flowing like water; bright red of the underworld, powerful as fire; wispy yellow of the Mipedians, bright as the sun and fluttering like the winds; and finally the rippling orange of the Dainians, solid and orderly as earth.

The tribes had settled there, and soon their squabbles had emerged like opposites, fire against water, wind against earth, and soon the battles became inevitable; settling into an unsteady balance where no one would take Perim completely.

Back then these four energies harmonized with each other to support the life of all Perim, despite its warring tribes, and now…they were starting to fall apart.

"Where did that fifth energy come from?" she took off making mental notes, the source of the blue energy had shifted a little since the last time she was here, perhaps the others had too. She needed to know where they all originated now, and where they fell apart. Most importantly she needed to know more about that black energy, the one that felt like a lack of will and understanding, a void to everything that mattered.

***8***

Danny and Tom listened to Kaz's story with mixed results.

A ghost out on Broken edge, Danny was a bit glad to hear about it. It meant his ghost half wouldn't be considered farfetched to anyone who saw him, but the description just didn't add up, it sounded more like one of those ghosts that barely had any power to their name, the little blobs were often used as servants by more powerful ghosts or wander around like little parasites. Usually until they faded from existence or gained proper forms of their own.

Tom frowned for another reason. Technically nearly everything in Perim was scan able for something, be they local, objects that could be used as battle gear, locations themselves and of course the crystalized rings known as mugic. But this ghost thing, if it didn't show up as a creature it could be something else, something dangerous. Like a certain _other_ thing he had come across the first time he had scanned Prexor chasm.

"Are you sure it never showed up on your scanner?"

"Of course I'm sure," Kaz was close to exploding, "the thing was right in front of us and it still didn't register. Not only that, I tried scanning it and got nothing. Nothing! That's just crazy!"

Tom held his hands up, "Ok, ok, I'm just asking that's all."

"Kaz, did it say anything to you?" Danny asked, "Spout any plans or rant on about something, anything at all?"

The other boys looked at him, puzzled. Kaz thought a minute, "Well…it said something about hearing breaking, and then it went on about replacement, after I thought I had a scan of the thing I didn't want to stick around to find out what _that_ meant."

Danny nodded, folding his arms and thinking this over, "So it wants to replace people…find a host maybe?"

Kaz shivered at the idea, "Like I said, I didn't stick around to find out."

Tom got a worried look on his face, "You sure nothing else was strange around there? Nothing…destroyed?"

Kaz knew Tom was thinking of the Blithe from Prexor chasm almost a year ago, how that huge thing destroyed everything in its path with no reason or remorse like a disease. He shook his head, "Everything looked normal even after the thing got there. No damage."

Tom was glad to hear that much at least, still this was something he wanted to look into.

"Maybe Najerin should know about this, in case that thing is more dangerous than we thought." Tom stood up, "He should still be in the palace right now."

Kaz cocked his head to one side, "Wait, you know exactly where Najerin is for once?"

Danny stood up as well, reminding the other boys of his presence, stuffing his hands in his pockets, "Najerin asked Tom to keep an eye on me. Long story, remind me to tell you later. Right now I think Tom's right; a ghost wanting to replace someone is never a good thing."

***8***

Maxxor had his hands crossed as he heard out Najerin's every word, the blue creature waited calmly in his seat as his leader digested the information he had offered. Finally the green tattooed creature leaned back in his chair with a heavy sigh.

"Alright then, Najerin, if you can trust this Ren creature then I can grant her permission to move through the Overworld." He closed his eyes a moment, "And as to the human with no scanner, he can stay here for now. But know that anything that happens to him is _not_ my responsibility."

The blue muge nodded, "I don't expect anything more or less. Thank you for understanding Maxxor."

The overworld ruler smiled, "I've never had a reason to doubt you old friend."

Najerin sighed, touching his forehead as if suddenly very tired, yet he had a smile on his aged face, "Old friend, I had just gotten used to her calling me a child again."

"You mean to say she is older than you are?" Maxxor asked sounding surprised.

The muge shook his head, "I did say she could time travel somewhat, though it's quite complicated, when I first met her she was only ten years my elder, and as with the other times I have seen her, she seems to have aged only minutes compared to the years I have gained. Currently she still looks around the same age as Tomas and his friends, yet she still calls me Kid."

Maxxor's face became unreadable, "If she's anything like Roden and his time caves, then it's a wonder she has no tribe of her own."

Najerin glanced towards the door, already he could sense a trio of humans coming down the hall, "I asked her about that once; she said that she would rather be a fence sitter when the situation has no right or wrong."

Maxxor raised his brow, confused. Najerin stood up heading for the door, "At least, that's how she put it.

"And now it seems that now you'll be meeting young Danny." He opened up the door to reveal three surprised humans, Tom with his hand in the air as if he was about to knock but never got the chance.

Najerin gave them a small smile, "come on inside Daniel, I've already finished filling Maxxor in on your predicament. Now Tom, if there's something you wish to bring to my attention, it'll have to be in private."

Tom nodded, letting it slide; Danny and Kaz however looked at each other with shock.

"Um, Tom, how did he do that?" Danny asked.

His doppelganger shrugged, "I've given up trying to figure it out."

***8***

Danny had gone ghost, he always found it nice to go flying when he couldn't sleep, lazing on the wind and floating among stars in the late hours. It helped him relax in ways he couldn't explain.

He sighed in pleasure as all cares washed away from him, green glowing eyes turned to a sky filled with stars. Not a cloud in sight and a pale thin crescent of a moon overhead. He soon settled himself on the roof of the palace looking out over the landscape beyond the walls and the bright sky.

"Wish I had a telescope. This sky is awesome." He sighed, thinking about the conversation he had with Maxxor. The huge green creature had reminded him a bit of his dad back home, well in size anyway. Aside from being surprised at how much he looked like tom, (Danny had a feeling that was going to happen a lot.) the green creature had made a clear point of how even though he was granting Danny a place to stay safe in Perim, anything that happened to Danny was to be his own fault and no one else. No one was going to be asked to watch him for any reason whatsoever, even at the request of a good friend such as Najerin.

He was just starting to enjoy himself and forget troubles for the night when he heard a creaking sound to his right. He turned in time to see a trap door open, and Maxxor himself came hopping out. Danny turned on his invisibility, not moving. Maxxor strode across the roof, sitting just near where Danny was. The green creature leaned back and looked up into the night, sighing.

Danny floated up into the air so as not to make any noise, a similar thought going through his head as back at Lake Ken-I-Po, and the last thing he needed was to end up being attacked by the leader of the overworld.

Maxxor stared off into the sky with a tired look. Danny wondered just how much stress it was to be a warrior and leader of the overworld all at once. The young half ghost couldn't imagine it; the most he ever had to worry about was protecting his hometown from ghost attacks and keeping his grades up, while keeping people from finding out about his secret. And that was hard enough on a kid his age.

"I know you're there," Maxxor's voice startled him, so badly his invisibility fizzled, "if you aren't going to attack you can at least tell me what you're doing up here."

Danny turned to see the green creature was now sitting up, and staring in his direction; Danny dropped his invisibility and turned around rubbing the back of his neck, "Er, Hey, nice night for star gazing isn't it?"

****8****

Maxxor's eyes narrowed a bit as he eyed the young creature's loose black and white clothes and scrawny form, the way he floated off the ground and a slight non-existent breeze ruffled his snow white hair. What intrigued him the most was the way the young creature was glowing, like a moon shining dimly in the night. Narrowed brown humanoid eyes then glanced into dragon slit glowing green ones searching, whoever this young creature was didn't seem keen on a fight; that was good at least. Of course Maxxor had no intentions of letting his guard down.

"Who are you?"

The young creature rubbed the back of his neck, a nervous trait he had only ever seen in humans before. He hesitated, "D…Phantom. Just Phantom."

Maxxor nodded, he'd be sure to remember that name, "Where are you from?"

Again Phantom hesitated, "Er, the Grassy plains?"

Maxxor raised his brow, obviously the creature was lying. He stood up looking the kid over, he wasn't buggy enough to be a Danian, it was possible this kid was from the underworld, but they attacked rather than show they were nervous to an enemy; after that invisibility trick he'd seen and the kid's eyes, it was equally possible that he could be a Mipedian. Yet as far as he could tell the kid didn't have any scales, tail or anything lizard-like about him, not to mention he was wearing shoes. Mipedians don't wear shoes.

Phantom landed softly on the roof giving a smile, "Actually I…can't say. I just got here."

This caught Maxxor a little off guard, "Got here as in…"

"That is I…I don't really know how it happened."

The young creature sounded sincere, not something he'd expect from an underworlder, or any attacker from any tribe. "Why are you here in Kiru city?"

Phantom started off slowly, giving a small smile, "Looked interesting, besides up here was the best place for stargazing on a night like this."

The green creature thought this over, prefers stargazing to battling creatures he doesn't know, what an odd youth, "Yes… Still…I can't have intruders show up any time they like. If you're not an Overworlder then I have to assume you're with another tribe."

Phantom cocked his head to one side looking confused, "Wait, there's more than one tribe?"

Maxxor raised a brow; just how little did this young creature know? Even the humans who came for their games knew about Perim, Tribes, creatures, attacks, mugic, they sometimes seemed to know more about Perim than the creatures that lived there. But Phantom seemed to be claiming no such knowledge at all.

"How do you not…?"

"Maxxor there you are." Behind him a white hawk like creature in green jerkin swooped in, pulling a scroll from his bag, "I apologize for the late hour Sire, but the girl said this was to be delivered at once."

"A girl?" Maxxor asked flatly, he didn't think one of the Overworld's best archers would make a delivery just because a human asked him too.

The bird man nodded, "A fox girl with a white face, called herself Ren. She said if you didn't see it things would get out of hand."

He handed his leader the scroll, pulling out a Spectral viewer, a battle gear that looks like a reptilian skull mask with a green spyglass through one eye. He peered through it looking around, nodding as he put it away. Maxxor assumed that meant Phantom was nowhere around.

****8****

Danny phased back into his room, reaching for his humanity and shifting back before slipping into the bed. Meeting Maxxor as Danny Fenton was frightening enough, meeting Maxxor as Danny _Phantom_ might cause him some trouble. There were no doubts in his mind that Maxxor was going to have his subjects keep an eye out for a white haired creature that could float around.

"Well at least he doesn't know that both Phantom and Danny are the same person…" he thought about that statement, "Same creature. Heh, better than being called a ghost I guess."

He laughed at the thought, and turned over to fall asleep.

**Hova: (on the phone) yes sir...yes...of course I...yes...I got it...yep...alright next week then...right, bye -_- (sigh)**

**Najerin: is something the matter?**

**Hova:(turns to wall, tapps forhead) Peachy. accept now half of my guest list just quit on me after that translator fiasco...whose idea was it to bring a guy that cant speak English over anyway?**

**Najerin coughs: talking of which, who is it this chapter?**

**Hova perks her hears and looks at the update: T T* oh crud I forgot. -_- (sigh) well it was going to be Jazz, but something came up. so then I tried a few numbers but not one of them said so much as a maybe. and I just got off with Qui. (tapps head for each word) a big. fat. NO! OWCH, too hard...**

**Najerin: Qui as in that dragon mentioned in your other story?**

**Hova nods: Desperate...Oh wait, what about...(turns to muge, tail wagging) can you be my guest this time?**

**Najerin: T T there are few things I would discus when the public is to read it.**

**Hova: ^ ^ so...that would be...**

**Najerin: Have you tried Clockwork perhaps? I've heard he can make time for anything.**

**Hova: -_- he said I should ask my source for help then he would think about it. what the heck does that mean anyway? ask my readers for guest ideas? this early in the story? is he crazy?**

**Najerin sighs: I belive it is still as you humans say, 'worth a shot', don't you think?**

**Hova: ...fine. any readers have a suggestion please let me know via review or Private message. (turns back to muge) happy now?**

**Najerin: perhaps I should go.**


	5. Chapter 5- Ren and White face

Ren was running hard, following the flow of energy. So concentrated was she that she didn't notice the sunset or the moon rising. She didn't notice the creatures that saw her enter and leave their territory, or the eyes that followed, all she saw was four flows of energy and one that kept them apart on a void.

It was late at night as she followed the pale blue energy to the edge of the overworld, at a place where scrubland met forest in a strange balance. Orange shimmered faintly here, the earth was beginning to die here, sucked into the void. She frowned as something stirred in her memory, this place was familiar somehow.

"Are you sure it was around here?" she heard someone ask. She turned her attention to where that voice had come from. Two boys of the same age were headed her way, instinctively she slipped into hiding, gathering shadows around her for good measure. The two boys came into view, one with spikey orange hair and red tinged glasses, the other threw her for a loop, of not for the different aura she would've sworn that boy was Danny. She watched them carefully, intent on continuing once they had passed her by.

As she watched the flow, something changed, the pale red grew very slightly stronger. She twitched her nose, trying to pick up any abnormalities her 'feelings' couldn't detect, but all she could smell that wasn't there before were those two human boys.

"something's wrong here" she muttered, slipping off her mask to revert to human and dispersing the shadows. She was still able to hear the two talking about finding a creature of some sort in hopes of scanning it. her ears twitched at that, followed by a heavy sigh. Humans in Perim, even young humans was odd enough, but the terms they were using were proof she had been away from this place for so long. Where Najerin's obvious age had made her feel more like the traveler she was, these kids were making her feel old somehow.

***8***

Tom checked his scanner again, the creature decetion still showed nothing. Though he didn't believe it the thought of a creature that didn't show up on his scanners was making him uneasy.

"So tell me how you found it again?" he asked trying to keep his fear of this thing actually showing up in check.

"By accident, that's how." Kaz said, stepping a bit in one direction and changing his mind for the tenth time, "The only reason I knew it was there was because it suddenly got a lot colder."

"Sounds freaky," a third voice chimed.

Kaz nodded, "It was…!"

Both boys stopped, looking to each other slowly.

"Tom? Did you…?"

The black haired boy shook his head, eye glancing to his scanner, still showing no sign of a creature anywhere. Cautiously they turned around, seeing a girl with braided brown hair with her hands behind her back as she looked at them with amber eyes.

She blinked once looking between them carefully, holding up her hand, "am I interrupting something here?"

Tom checked his scanner again before looking her in the face, a dot was blinking on the radar showing one creature, the girl. But if she was a creature, then who was she? An Overworlder he hadn't met yet? Or maybe she was from somewhere else?

The girl smiled gently, "Oh don't worry about me. I'm just a regular human with an irregular problem, hahaha!"

As she laughed Kaz cast a questioning glance to his friend, Tom tipped his scanner so the screen was showing. He then flicked his head towards her asking silently, _should we scan her?_

Kaz considered it, she didn't look like much; in fact if not for the creature locater function on the scanner he never would've guessed that she was a creature. Even her clothes seemed like they were from earth somehow. The long green shirt that seemed too big for her, the brown pants stuffed into black boots, even the short cloak seemed to suit her fine.

He pocketed his scanner, Tom nodded doing the same. Not now, first find out who she is.

"What kind of problem?" he asked. He flinched as the girl waved a finger in his face, looking annoyed.

"Didn't you hear me? I said an _irregular_ problem; irregular means out of the ordinary or strange, not what you would expect." She crossed her arms in front of her, "Honestly what do they teach you kids in school these days?"

Instantly she frowned, looking upwards as if thinking about something. She was silent for a while.

"Er, something wrong?" Tom asked.

"I can't help but think I've heard that somewhere before," she shrugged, "Oh well, Hey can I ask you something? Never mind I'll do it anyway, have either of you two seen a creature that doesn't seem like they belong around here?"

Both of them frowned.

"Mind being a little more specific?" Kaz asked rolling his eyes a little. Tom stepped in hoping this human looking creature wouldn't take notice of Kaz's tone.

"For new players all creatures don't completely look like they belong here. That's what we mean."

The girl nodded slowly, eyes staring more intently on Tom, "I'm looking for a Tengu girl. Not some old lady like most stories would have people believe; I'm talking about a crow winged female, white hair. Seen her?"

Tom shook his head, "No can't say that I have. What about you Kaz?"

The redhead didn't answer right away; he shook his head "Nope, nobody I know of looks like that."

"Are you sure?" the girl brought herself up so close to him their noses were almost touching, her voice dripped sweet as honey while the bees were still guarding it, "No new creatures at all? Not even in the underworld recently?"

Kaz gave a shiver but said nothing, shaking his head as firmly as before. The girl's amber eyes narrowed slightly as if she didn't believe him. Finally she smiled brightly, "Alright then, I'm off."

She headed off back the way she came, vanishing into the trees. Both boys looked to each other once.

"She showed up on the detector right?" Kaz asked blankly.

Tom nodded, "And since Players don't show up then that means…"

"…She's a new creature," Kaz nearly shouted, eyes going wide, "and we just let her walk away."

Both boys rushed off after her.

***8***

Little under an hour later, both of them were out of breath.

"How…could we have…lost her…so fast?" Tom gasped, leaning back against the tree.

"We must've… searched the whole forest…" Kaz wheezed looking pale.

Tom shook his head, "Not even close"

"How do you…?"

"You spend as much time in the underworld as I do in the overworld."

Kaz sighed, turning to his scanner again, eyes going wide with excitement. Tom didn't need to ask to know what was up. Literally…

Both boys looked up into the trees to see a creature, not the girl they were after, but a large fox in a green tunic and cloak. Amber eyes gleamed as they meet those of the human's staring at her.

She sighed as she jumped down to stand before them, "Guess I can't hide from that device of yours. Can I?"

Tom couldn't help but be a little surprised, from the white fur surrounding her face he would've guessed she was older, but she sounded almost like a girl in high school. On top of which, he got the feeling she had been following them.

"Have you…been watching us?"

The fox's tail twitched as a smile crossed her muzzle, "Fraid so. See I'm looking for someone and I mistook you two for them at first. However I can't help but think you might've seen her."

The boys glanced to each other a moment, "A girl? Brown hair."

The fox shook her head, "White, and winged."

She turned to Kaz, "I can't help but think you might know something. Do you?"

Kaz's face turned a shade redder as he looked right into her eyes. Her tail twitched several times under that cool gaze before he finally spoke.

"No, just like I told that other creature before, I haven't seen anyone like that."

***8***

He was trying to throw her off, she could tell. Two people after the same thing who find out about each other would often hinder each other. A good idea on his part, and it might've worked if she hadn't been the same girl from before.

She focused her power deeper into him; unlike with plants, trees and most creatures, human auras could take on all kinds of depths, textures and colors, depending on how they grew up and how they chose to react to things, some could even be layered. It's what made them, among most sentient beings she had met, so diversified. Depending on the person she was with, they could be terrifying or wondrous, both or anything in between.

When she first saw him, his aura showed him to be a gentle hearted boy with a hint of an adventurous side, it was like looking at a kitten hiding under the covers while still looking over the edge of the top bunk bed. But once he had calmed down that aura seemed a bit more like a bigger animal of some sort, and his personal flow right where his true nature should be, had a sunset sheen to it, powerful yet gentle like a small flame. In fact it almost felt like… wait how was that possible?

She stepped back, folding her arms across her chest again, "Hmm, Let me ask you something, if you were a native of Perim, what tribe would you be?"

The red haired boy frowned, looking at her confused, "Why would you want to know….?"

"Just answer the question." she growled.

The boy gulped, "U-underworld."

She watched his aura change again, her ears perking at his answer. So he did know something, and it was in what had been her least favorite part of Perim back then. Wonder how much the place had changed.

With a step back she smiled again, "Alright I believe you. I'll just continue my search elsewhere. Have a nice day boys."

She turned to leave, stopping in her tracks as the doppelganger of her stowaway called out.

"Wait, do you mind if we get a scan of you?" as she turned to look at him he was smiling hopefully. She blinked once, seeing no hint of ulterior motive in his aura she felt somewhat…well flattered. Something she hadn't felt for a long time, so long in fact she wasn't sure what to do about it.

"Scan? What for?"

He smiled a bit bigger, Ren decided to ignore feeling like a child about to be told something that was common knowledge.

"It's for our game back in Chaotic. A scan of you and we can become you in our battles."

Instantly she blushed, it almost sounded like he had said 'I want to be you'. Only with a more literal feel to it, she wasn't sure she could allow that.

"Er, well I…?" she thought a moment, taking off her cloak and holding it up, "You can try scanning this if you want."

Tom looked at it confused, "Is that some kind of battle gear?"

Battle gear? If he meant did she use it in a fight then he was in for a disappointment. However she was sure he wouldn't find it totally useless, "It's called a stardust cloak, it works better for….what's the phrase you would use? Status issues?"

Tom frowned, holding up his little device to it, the thing started humming with a little blue white light glowing from the back. Once it stopped he looked at the screen, eyes widening in delight.

"Says here this can help heal creatures, it makes them immune to smaller status effects, anything under twenty."

Kaz leaned over to look, a smile crossing his face, "Wow, that'll come in real handy during my next match."

Ren held up the cloak again, smiling, "Make it quick I got to get going."

As he finished she clasped the thing back on and turned to leave. Behind her Tom raised his hand, "Wait we forgot to…"

But she had already rushed off and she had no intentions of finding out what it was he wanted. Her mind was back on the flow, following the stream of energy into Mipedian territory.

**(smacks head on keys three time) Stupid. Stupid. Ow! TT***

**(knock at the door)**

**Hova: what ever it is I'm not buying any. try next door. (mutters) that guy buys something every week.**

**(Door opens and a white haired girl peeks in.)**

**?: Um, pardon me, are you Hovastrider? the one writing this story?**

**Hova: (turns to look at the girl, still upset) Yeah, why do you want to know?**

**?: (steps inside) Well you see, I was wondering, if maybe I could sugest a few things.**

**Hova: (leans back in her chair, ears flat) Such as?**

**?: Well maybe you could change your writing style for this story a little bit, make each chapter a bit more like an part of an episode, that way you could cover all the characters better and you don't have to worry so much about accidently writing someone out.**

**Hova: o_o Hmm, that's not a bad idea actually. if I think of each chapter from her n out as an episode I can concentrate on parts as I please instead of juggling the plot as a whole. which will save me a large headache if I keep trying to write so much of it at once.**

**?: ^ ^ yes, Also you should give Danny a reason to leave Kiru.**

**Hova: already thinking, for now leave it ok? (turning back to desk, scribbling in notebook and tail wagging) ^ ^ I feel so much better now. Anything else?**

**?: (blushing) a name.**

**Hova: (perks up Looks at girl again) What?**

**?: I want a better name, mine is too complicated.**

**Hova: (finally sees wings) 0_0 oh...9_9 I will see what I can do. don't expect anything in the next chapter though.**

**Raven winged girl: I know, just don't write me out ok? I'm supposed to...**

**Hova: (jumps out of her seat and knocks 'Raven wings' to the floor with paw on mouth) SHUSHHHH, No spoilers. Understand?**

**'Raven wings': (nods)**

**Hova: (turns to readers) sorry about that. anyway my request still stands. and if you misunderstood it then here it is again, rephrased. I am looking for sugestions for characters to talk with in these after chapter segments. Please oblige 9_9 I'm sure they'll have forgotten about the translator incident by now...-_- hopefully...**

**Please review! 0_0 oh yeah, and sorry I had to repost this chapter everyone!**

**wont happen again I promise ^ ^**


	6. NAME CRISIS

**Hova: (in her chair again) ZZZzzzzzzZZZZZZzzzzzzZZZZZzzzzzZZZZZzzzzZZZZZzzzz* NO DONT MAKE ME WEAR THE PINK TUTU!...T T**

**(sigh) just a dream.**

**(looks at last chapter post) ^ ^ and it looks like I got that straightened out a, hoooold on...(looks at discussion at the end) 'I want a name' Awe snap!**

**(slap forehead, fall out of chair) I'm ok...I think. but I cant believe I almost forgot about that. i had a name for her already lined up here...(rummaging through papers) where oh where has...o_o ok it's here somewhere...**

**TWO HOURS LATER...**

**(room is torn apart) comeoncomeoncomeoncomeoncomeoncomeon...(flops to floor) 0_0 I...don't...have it...^ ^ an important future character and I cant find her name...**

**(turns to computer sees parrot screen saver) ...haha...Polly...Polly, pol...poll, POLL! EURAKA THAT'S IT! (jumps up and sits to face readers)**

**Hello everyone! I need a little help. at some point I'd like to write a chapter with...Tengu girl, Raven winged girl...my nameless OC again. you know the one Ren's looking for. and while I'm sure I can work out the bugs in her personality, her name is driving me crazy. so I'm putting out a poll on my profile page.**

**head on over to check it out. ^ ^ in the mean time I'm going to fix this mess.**

**9_9 how did I end up hanging my chair on the celling fan?**


	7. Chapter 6- Incident part 1

Danny sighed as he watched the sun rise from the wall. Four days, four long days and now he was bored. Sure Kiru city was huge, and as such there wasn't really any end of things to do around here. Lots of places to explore, lots of things to see, and that was just for Danny.

As phantom the list doubled as he could get into about anywhere his human half couldn't, he also found that most creatures (mostly guards) would challenge him to battle or outright attack him; this gave him some practice in fighting on the ground instead of up in the air like he normally would with ghosts back home. And if he didn't want to fight he'd simply disappear around a corner or through a wall. On occasion he ran into Maxxor while exploring the palace, the place had more secret passages then his parents had ecto-weapons. When they did run into each other they would either stop and talk or simply say hello and move on. Danny had learned a lot about Perim that way, mostly how things worked in the overworld, not that it did much good. He still had no idea how they were on the subject of ghosts. He did hear about one 'living' in the desert, Mipedian territory, called Oh wakey or something like that. But apparently they just left him be as he was a great asset against a long forgotten enemy.

As the light grew he thought of what he wanted to do today, he ended up waking early for some reason and now he felt restless. Like there was something going on he should know about that he hadn't noticed before. He sighed to himself, hopping up so he stood on the edge of the wall. Whatever the reason, didn't seem like the sort of thing a leisurely flight couldn't fix. After all, what could possibly be wrong on such a peaceful morning?

He glanced around to make sure nobody was watching and closed his eyes; one step was all it took to feel the familiar and terrifying pull of gravity with nothing beneath him to land on for what could seem like ages if he allowed it. As his heart felt the tingle you get when you drop he reached for his cold core, a pair of silver rings rushing over him and he curved out, swooping back into the air without opening his eyes. Instead feeling the crisp morning air, that space between the last of night and the first of dawn; when the light of day is brightening and the cool of night still lingers before bowing out to the heat of the day.

Phantom sighed in pleasure as he floated freely in the open air, controlling where he went with the slightest of efforts, perfectly at home up here in the vast sky where few ever follow. Opening his eyes he could still see a few stars in the greying heights and low clouds tinged with the first rays of the morning.

"Sam would love this view." He muttered to himself, "Too bad she's not a morning person."

He felt a twinge of homesickness hit him again, like it had several times before. He dived back downwards, continuing his care free flight. Before he had just convinced himself he was on vacation, an unusual vacation. But still, after this long with no word or message from Ren, his doubts were beginning to take root.

What if she was wrong? What if for one reason or another she couldn't send him home? What if he went home and found he had been missing for weeks instead of days? Or months even?

He shook his head, if that became the case then Clockwork could easily fix that, he was a ghost of time after all. And he always said that when everything is as it should be there was nothing to be done about it.

**8**

Payton was looking over the city from the wall top, hoping to find a new location scan for his deck.

"Ok, so with all the different places around here shouldn't be too hard to come up with a new angle for the game." He said to himself with a smile before stilling a large yawn, "Can't help but feel jealous of my earth self though. Still back in bed while I'm out here improving my game."

He cast his eyes over the nearest buildings, looking for inspiration, "So if that's the mugic academy over there then that's the library and uh…no wait that's the library over there and then there's the armory and the bazar, no wait the bazar over there and…"

A shadow of something overhead, glancing upwards he saw a creature in black and white floating towards the ground. He strained his eyes trying to get a better look, "Strange, never seen him befo…"

With a jolt, Payton dived for the nearest hiding place, searching his scans for a location closer to where the creature was.

_Whoever that guy is, I gotta get in for a closer look._ A large grin spread across his face at the thought of scanning a new creature.

***8***

Danny landed silently in an alley way, his heightened hearing picking up heavy footfalls of Overworld guards going out on patrol, as well as several creatures getting up and ready for the day. Peering around the corner he could see one of the stands selling food was already up and running.

His stomach gave a growl as the scent filled his nose, Perim food was strange but after being thrown out of your own world and into another without any idea of how long you'll be stuck there he knew better than to be picky. A lesson easily learned after some of the dinners his mom cooked up while working on experiments at the same time.

Still, remembering her cooking made him feel a bit homesick.

A flash of something caught his attention; instinctively he relaxed, ready to react instantly in case of attack.

That was one thing he just couldn't get used to here, the attacks. A creature saw him as a threat the first thing they did was throw fire at him. Not too different from when he had been attacked by ghosts back home, however those guys were either up to something or had a grudge with him to begin with, and he could detect when they were around so they couldn't sneak up on him, much.

Here however all the residents were very much like humans, no ectoplasm meant no ghost sense and no ghost sense meant he couldn't tell if one got too close. Normally that meant they were regular humans, harmless unless they were his parents or Valerie. But in Perim everyone and their pets seemed to have the ability to fry, freeze and dice his behind if he wasn't careful. And the short tempers of the guards didn't help much.

On seeing that white flash, small as it was, he wasn't taking any chances. If someone was trying to attack him again he wanted to be ready.

Human eyes peered around the corner, shifting this way and that under long scruffy brown hair. If Danny were visible at that moment the surprise written on his face would be all too easy to read.

_Must be another Chaotic player like Tom and Kaz._ He thought. The human, a large boy in cargo shorts and a tee shirt, stepped out still looking around, a yellow device in his hand confirmed Danny's thoughts.

"Who was that guy? A new scout for Maxxor I'll bet. On his way back from a top secret mission. Aw man, where'd he go?" the boy said under his breath, apparently working himself into a frenzy

Danny frowned, recalling what Tom had explained to him about Players. They could use those little machines to scan creatures, objects and locations to get digital cards for their game. And once in the game they could use those scans to literally _become_ creatures,_ in_ locations, and use the objects as battle gear and magic like a real battle.

Cool as it sounded the idea of someone turning into him didn't sit right with him. He had enough crazy fans back home for one thing.

The player looked around more thoroughly, muttering everything on his mind like a bad habit. Danny almost wondered if this kid had ever met Technus, the self-proclaimed master of all technology and the number one rambler of all the ghost zone.

***8***

Payton groaned, he couldn't seem to see that creature anywhere, "Man I can't believe I lost him. A new creature and I had to go and loose him just like that."

Before he could lament any further his stomach growled loudly. A smell reached his nose, local food. He thought about porting back to Chaotic for some grub but then another surprise caught his attention. A human player walking right up to one of the stands in the market place, with a familiar shaggy black hair.

"Well maybe my day won't be a total loss after all." He started towards the boy, calling out with a huge grin, "Yo, Tommy, what's up bro?"

The boy didn't move, Payton didn't let that bother him. He just smiled as he ran up to him and touched his shoulder, "Dude, are those new threads? They look good on ya. Listen, I was hoping you could help me on…"

He paused as the boy turned around, Payton then realized he wasn't looking at his best friend and favorite overworld player. He had the same shaggy black hair and bright blue eyes but different, very different. Payton coughed as the boy looked at him confused.

"Er, sorry I thought you were someone else."

The boy shrugged, "It's okay, really. Tom and I tell everyone were twins."

Payton could tell the last comment was something of a joke, but that struck something with him, "so you two have met?"

The boy nodded, "He was one of the first guys I met here in Kiru city."

He stuck his hand out, "I'm Danny by the way, Danny Fenton."

Payton shook the hand firmly, smiling wide, "Nice to meet you dude. You know I haven't seen you around Chaotic before, probably because you're new and all, right?"

Danny gave a weak laugh, "Er, yeah something like that."

"So what are you doing here in Kiru city? Getting some new scans for your battle strategies?"

Again, Danny's smile was weak, almost forced, "No not really. I'm kinda….staying here for a bit is all."

Payton frowned, that didn't sound right somehow, sure he'd heard of players staying in Perim days at a time for one reason or another, heck he'd done so himself to get prime scans of things. But with Danny…somehow it didn't sound like that was his reason for being here in the city. Quietly he shoved the thought aside, if a player had his or her reasons for what they did in Perim, then that was their business and he didn't have to know. Unless of course it was something so epic not knowing could tip the advantage for one of the tribes and cause an all-out war among them. The fighting between them was bad enough.

With a small cough he decided if it was anything like that he would find out later. For now though he wanted to get to know this kid.

"So Danny, how long have you been here in the city?"

Danny looked up a minute as if thinking it over, "Hmm, about a week I think."

Payton smiled at that, "And how much of the city have you actually seen?"

"Plenty." Danny said flatly. Payton frowned, was it him or did the kid sound bored?

"Well, do you know the best places for the best scans?" he said with a smile, "I can show you some of my favorite spots if you want."

Danny looked at him as if thinking this over, finally he shrugged, "I'm game. Maybe it'll give me a new perspective on things around the city."

Payton wasn't sure if he was being serious, after all, if he had only been in Perim for a week then how much of the city could he had possibly seen?

***8***

In the shadows a figure lurked in hiding, a figure with black scaly skin patterned with dark blue swirls, flickering in and out in a ghostly haze like something you thought you saw out of the corner of your eye. It didn't touch the ground, too many eyes could look his way even for a moment, he wasn't going to risk that under any circumstances, his job here was much too important.

In the growing light the shadows began to be far and few between, not that it mattered, when his spouts of invisibility weren't needed all he had to do was sit perfectly still in the shadows and let his dark coloring doth e rest. Not one creature looked his way and realized a living thing was there, up in the dark corners or slipping in and out of windows.

As he neared the palace he stopped, just under a roof's edge, clinging to the wooden framework and stone walling, a deep red tongue flickered out, smelling the air. Yes that was it! That was where he needed to go.

Silent as was possible for a master climber, a lizard humanoid, the figure flickered out of sight, headed straight towards the large building.

***8***

Danny sighed as he dug into the warm bread, Payton's shocked face at how easily he had bartered for the stuff had been a worth a laugh for a bit. According to him players and the local creatures weren't always on such good terms with each other. Sure the creatures would make deals with players for a simple scan, and some of the creatures did seem to have soft spots for the players. But to actually trade the way Danny had just done.

"…two quarters and a mugic for three pieces of bread? And she totally agreed on it?" Payton was saying through a mouthful of Perim bread, "You could've haggled her down for just the quarters and used the mugic for something bigger, like help in getting a scan. And why would you accept that much bread in the first place? It's not like you can bring that back with you to Chaotic."

"I don't have to, it's my breakfast." Danny took a bite out of one.

Payton's step faltered a bit, "Say what now?"

Danny didn't answer, instead offering a roll to the burly boy, "It's pretty good."

Payton stared at it, his stomach growled loudly on him. Reluctantly he took it and had a large bite, a smile crossing his face at the soft texture, "hey, this is kinda like that Amish stuff we had on our last road trip."

He took another large mouthful, talking around it, "This would go great with some dipping sauce."

Danny smiled to himself as he pocketed the last piece and continued with his first. Only for an all too familiar blue mist to escape his mouth. Instinctively his eyes began to search, the street ahead of them, the air above them, every shadow and alley in sight.

Payton halted in mid-bite, having noticed Danny's step had slowed, "Hey dude what's the matter?"

Danny didn't answer right away; he should know that feeling of cold easily by now, his ghost sense kicking in, but this…something was different about this. Normally whenever his ghost sense not only had the blue mist escaped his lips, but a shiver of cold would swiftly run up his spine. This time the only cold he felt was from that mist escaping from deep in his throat, nothing else. It was like half of his ghost sense wasn't working. But why was that? Did it have something to do with Clockwork changing how his ghost form looked? Or was it something else?

A shimmer overhead caught his attention, a feeling of cold at the back of his throat seemed to alert him again.

"Something's wrong." He muttered.

Payton frowned, turning his eyes to look in the same direction, "Uh, what you looking at their D-man?"

"I just remembered I need to be somewhere. Gotta run, see you around!" he took off down the nearest alley, a pair of silver rings just forming around him with a comfortably familiar rush of going ghost.

***8***

"Hey wait a minute!" Payton yelled, hurrying right behind the Tom look alike, "What's gotten into you? Wow your fast."

He turned the corner peering into the alley, a long narrow space with just enough room for a larger creature to walk down. But nothing else. Payton looked on confused, his eyes searching for a door, window or even a hole in the wall that the kid could've slipped through.

***8***

Danny glanced back at the chubby kid still down in the alley, that kid was a bit faster than he had expected, just a second sooner and there would be one more person who knew his secret. Or worse the first player who thought he was a creature and wanted a scan.

That feeling brushed over him again, like half of his ghost sense was going off and the other half wasn't working, why was that? He glanced about searching for anything out of the ordinary. And for a half ghost in Kiru city, that was saying something.

A flash of something black, glinting in and out of sight caught his attention. With a change of direction he floated off towards the creature, turning on his invisibility. The thing was a huge lizard, dark scales glittering onyx black in what little light they caught and a strange pattern lined in a blue that looked bright compared with the rest of him. A hooded shawl of threadbare condition hung about its shoulders, and around its body was a simple tunic that looked to have been made from some rough material and lined with the lizard's own shed skin.

The creature stopped on one of the larger buildings, looking about with narrow green eyes. Danny floated in silence, watching, his half feeling now stronger as he watched. Was this guy the cause? He didn't look like a ghost, not any kind he might've seen before. But then what did he know about Perim ghosts?

The lizard's white tongue flicked in and out a few times before he was satisfied he was alone. With long dark claws he bent over to examine one of the domed skylights on the roof. The lizard then took a step back and blew some kind of purple smoke out of his mouth. It covered the glass seeming to do nothing at first. But a faint crackling filled the air, Danny's eyes widened as the smoke solidified, covering the whole skylight with a light purple substance that reminded him of a wad of gum.

With a swing of his tail, the lizard broke the thing open with a dull smack. Not waiting to inspect his work the creature slipped inside.

Danny took a note of the skylight and phased into the building after him, whatever the reason, this guy was here for something and he wanted to know exactly what that was.

** Hova: so there's another chapter for you guys, it's shorter than most but I think it served a purpose. ^ ^ and I'm totally excited cause today I have a guest! (waves paw) may I present second in command and one of the most fiery people you'll ever Takinom!**

**Takinom: (nods head) thank you for having me here.**

**Hova:( stars in eyes) thank you soooo much for coming I didn't think anyone would come in after that translator fiasco.**

**Takinom: (nods again) of course. I hear your going to have me appear in later chapters, so I thought I would come and introduce myself.**

**Hova: 0_0 what? Oh 0 0, Yes I remember ^ ^. it wont be this or the next one but I'm hoping to use you for a little shove to the story. keep things interesting.**

**Takinom: ^ ^ sounds like fun.**

**Hova: so can you tell me what it's like being second in command to Lord Chaor himself.**

**Takinom: -_- sigh* it's not always easy, for starters most of our troops get so into the heat of battle that they forget to follow simple orders.**

**Hova: So you found a way to solve this?**

**Takinom: yes. I bash a few heads and laid down ground rules for their fights.**

**Hova( sweat drop) ^ ^ uhh, I see...are all Underworlders...into fighting?**

**Takinom: not usually, but when nearly everyone has a hot temper in so many dark places it's hard not to get worked up once in a while even for simple things.**

**Hova: (getting nervous and trying hard not to show it) S-so, you to huh?**

**Takinom: Afraid so ^ ^, (glances at table across the room) oh are these human treats?**

**Hova: 0 0 What? oh those! yeah, those are some cupcakes I made for...**

**Takinom: (evil smile) may I try one?**

**Hova: ((0_0)) y-yeah s-sure. hope you like peanut butter.**

**Takinom gets up and helps herself, Hova sighs and turns to readers: I fixed the poll on my profile page, please vote soon and I can get this story going. please review.**

**smoke alarm goes off loudly. suddenly cut off with a BLAM! Hova turns to see a smoldering hole in the celing. Jaw drops to the floor**

**Takinom: T T annoying thing, all I did was try to cook this a bit more, the inside is too soft. (takes a bite out of a now black cupcake) ^ ^ Mmm better.**

**Hova: 0 0 Gald you like them...(faints)**


	8. Chapter 7 - Incident part 2

Payton looked around the alley a few more times before giving up, "the dude must've ported out or something…Rude."

A shadow of something caught his attention, he looked up in time to see a creature fly overhead, a creature with black and white.

Excitement bubbleing up inside would ahrdly cover the way the young Player was feeling right then. For not two seconds after the new flying creature had past over, Payton ran down that road like a greyhound after a rabbit on the racetrack. Something he hadn't done back home in his life.

It was nearly an hour after proting inside the building where the floating white haired creature had vanished like a mepidian. Payton stumbled along the hall, his feet aching and his stomach starting to rumble.

"Aw man. Maybe I should've taken that Danny kid's offer on the bread after all." He muttered to himself, "Would've lasted me until I got back for breakfast anyway…."

"INTRUDER!" someone screamed, Payton instinctively ducked into hiding, "SOMEONE'S STEALING IN THE LOWER HALLS."

This was followed by a loud bang, smoke filtered up from one of the doorways. Several of the nearest creatures rushed to see what was going on. Payton smiled, anxious to see if that new creature was fighting. It could be a good opertunity for a scan.

He wasn't disappointed, not two steps into the next large room two creatures came crashing through the wall. Payton's eyes widend, one of them was the white haried creature from before the other was a balck scaled mipedian he had never seen before.

On the one hand the kid was stoked about seeing not one but _two, _ count em, _two _ new creatures. On the other hand they seemed to be locked in battle right now, and for players while in Perim, that meant stay on your toes or get fried in the crossfire.

the black mipedian hissed loudly, showing sharp fangs gleaming. The white haired creature, looking very much like a dragon eyed kid, stuggled with the set of dark claws around his neck. His body flickering with some sort of green light. With a grunt the kid heaved btoh of his feet into his attacker's torso, sending the reptile a good few feet back while he rubbed at his neck, coughing.

"Great, tangible-proof gecko." His voice echoed slightly.

As he turned to face the mipedian all other creatures in the room were charging up attacks, aiming for both of the creatures in the center. younger creature noticed this, causing him to instantly be on alert.

He held up his hands defensively, "Hey, whoa, wait a minute, I'm the one who said there was an intruder. He's trying to steal scrolls."

Payton's eyes glanced at the bag around the black lizard's waist. Sure enough there was a rolled piece of paper sticking out of it, a very important looking one wrapped around what looked to be some sort of gold material.

The mipedian hissed again, tail lashing out at the nearest creatures, sending a purple energy their way, the blue markings on his face started to glow as something of the same color shot from his mouth.

As the attack connected the creatures found themselves knocked back then hit by some kind of sticky purple goo, unable to move.

The lizard then turned to the white haired creature with the same purple spit attack. The young creature flickered green, arching like a diver towards the floor as he vanished from sight. A second later he was rushing out of the floor, giving the dark scaled attacker a sucker punch right under the jaw as he flew up into the air.

Staggering from the attack, the lizard angrily spat another glob of purple goo at the creature. Only for it to miss with a simple side step and a smile.

"Yikes, that's almost as bad as your breath, have you seen a doctor about that?"

Payton's excitement started going through the roof as he pulled out his scanner, trying to decide which one to scan. The new overworlder or the awesome new mipedian.

Danny couldn't help but grin as he came flying in for another punch, after a week of begin cooped up in Kiru, this felt great. A lot like being back home battling ghosts again. Accept this one couldn't fly.

Just before he connected the black lizard's tail whipped around, glowing blue as it knocked him aside, followed by the claws raking into his shoulder. Danny gasped as he crashed into the floor again, his eyes flashed brighter.

"Wretched child!" the lizard hissed, "Stay out of my business and I will spare you."

Gee, if he had a dollar for every time he heard that one…

"Sorry Darkie," Danny smiled as he his hands glowed with energy, "There's a waiting list, take a number."

The lizard gave a shriek of pain as a beam of green ectoplasm hit it square on. The markings on his head starting to glow again. Danny noticed this and started tapping into his cold core even further. In almost no time the room began to crystalize in ice.

A count of three and the halfa lowered his hand, the black lizard completely encased in ice. Danny breathed a sigh of relief, smileing.

Of course not everything can stay 'peachy-keen' for long, because now he noticed that all he other creatures in the room had broken loose of their gooey imprisionments. The frozen remains of such litered the floor like forgotten purple popsicles.

Danny sighed for a new reason as the creatures surrounding them looked like they would attack at amy minute.

"Come on guys, I'm not the one who came in stealing from the library." He pointed to the lizard frozen there.

The creatures inched closer, one holding a gun that looked suspisiously like a certain ecto blaster his mom would use.

"surrender now. We have questions for you."

Danny sighed, "I garuntee I'm not with this guy. I came here to _stop_ him."

The gun clicked ominously. The half ghost decided that maybe he shouldn't press his luck. He had bad experience with trigger happy people, good shots and bad. With another sigh he started floating off the floor, his legs becoming a ghostly tail.

"Well, if you wont listen…"

"HOLD IT RIGHT THERE!" the creature fired. But the half ghost had already switched to invisibility and rushed up to the ceiling, phasing through easily until he was outside.

"Better lay low for a bit." The muttered to himself as he flew off over the city.

Payton sat there a moment with his mouth side open, comprehending what he just saw as one of the most awesome things he had ever seen in his life. Until a thoguth struck him. Or rather a realization...that he still hadn't so much as tired to scan anything and now one of the new creatures was gone.

"Aw man." He hissed under his breath, turning to look at the other one. The ice had him completely frozen, but it wasn't very thick near as he could tell. The markings on the black scales were still glowing bright blue.

He raised his scanner, seeing a clear picture, couldn't_ hurt to try could it?_

He pressed the button for a scan, the screen filled with white lettering for a moment as the device hummed. One of the creatures ears pricked turing to see a human holding up a scanner.

"A HUMAN INTURDER! SEIZE HIM!"

Payton's blood ran cold as he went into a familer panic as several creatures attacked him all at once. Fumbling with his scanner he pressed the button to port out not careing that where it was taking him.

A flash of blue and he found himself standing on the transport pad in Chaotic, a place only Players could reach via their scanners. A few steps later he slumped down into the nearest chair with a sigh of relief.

"Man htat was too close. And that's saying something." He muttered to himself.

"Really? you saw her too?" someone said at the next table, "Did you get a scan of her? I bet you did, let me see."

"I tried." Someone else said sadly, "and with how still she was standing you'd think it would've bee simple. But the second I started scanning she jumped into the trees and was gone. She flew over my head like a ninja or something."

"Hey guys, did you hear?" a girl ran up to the two out of breath, "a player called Rougestriker219 ported back from Echoing summit* and he started freaking out."

"What? Why?"

Payton's ears pricked, he was interested now too.

The girl continued, "He says he was attacked by a creature he'd never seen before. a big, cold, blue eyed blob whispering something about breaking. That's all I found out."

"Blob whispering about…" one of the first players sounded sceptic for a moment then seemed to realize something, "Hey dosent that sound like the blob we've been hearing about at Broken edge?"

"Come to think of it yeah, acept it had orange eyes. And didn't they say it couldn't be picked up with the creature locater on a scanner?"

The girl sighed heavily, a scrape of a chair following her next statement, "New creatures wit hno way t oknow where they are. Now that's a frightening thing to think about."

New creatures….Payton mentaly slapped himself as he pulled out his scanner. He forgot about his attempt to scan that black Mipedian.

"and with how fast I had to port out of there I wouldn't be surprised if…"he stopped, his hands starting to shake as he stared at the digital card's image before him, there it was. Status information (high courage and power, average wisdom and speed), element advantage (Earth, fire _and_ water; sweet!), mugic counter (two; not much of a caster then), and a detailed and lifelike image of a black lizard in a dark tunic with glowing blue markings on his face staring down from a high rock, silouteted by a full moon about to be covered by dark clouds, something white pouring from the corners of his mouth. Above that a name…

"Semiwrath," he smiled to himself, "that's a cool name."

He then noticed the outline color. Scans and most cards were outlined in a certain color, creature cards under a certain tribe would be line with that tribe's color, underworld red, Mipedian yellow, etc. the not so common color was white, these were for creatures who weren't a part of any tribe at all. How that worked few knew, as just about every creature you meet in certain places is going to show up as an overworlder or such no matter what.

The fact this Semiwrath was a tribeless ended bringing a question to mind, "If your not a Mipedian, then who were those scrolls for?"

Unfortunately this thought didn't last long as the thought of trying out a completely new creature in his game crossed his mind. With a jump up he headed off to lock the scan as a part of his deck, "Man I cant wait to try this guy out! wait until I tell the guys about this. They'll be begging me to battle with him."

**Hova: (sitting at home with a damp cloth on her head and her feet in a bucket of ice water) Oh, why did I take the double shift? the money may be worth it but the walk home...-_- oh my aching feet**

**(knock on the door)**

**Hova: It's open!**

**?: Ahalan, Miss Strider**

**Hova: (slides further into the chair with a groan) I forgot we were interviewing today, can we reschedule? (sees guest's expression, sits up straight with a groan) Fine, come on in Iflar. _ d'oh, sorry I mean Prince Iflar, I mean you lizardness, I mean...**

**Iflar: (steps forward and taps a spot on Hova's shoulder) ^ ^ don't worry yourself too much, Miss Strider. I am simply here to inform you of your sister's activities in Mipedian lands.**

**Hova: 0_0 um, if you mean Ren she...-_- do I even want to know what she's been up to outside my story?**

**Iflar: ^ ^ she's been a delight.**

**Hova: I knew she would get into...wait what? 0_0**

**Iflar: yes, so far while waiting on her next appearance she has offered quite a bit of help to us for upcoming celebration. The last I saw of her she was teaching the master cook how to make a dish called éclairs. and she has agreed to put on a little show for us during the actual event. I had the privilege of seeing her practice.**

**Hova: 0_0 ...she's behaving...and helping you set up for a party...and you haven't had any troubles at all?**

**Iflar: not at all. (glances at the ceiling as if remembering something. Hova doesn't notice until too late) although now that you mention it my cousin Mudinu claims one of his prized mounts has gone missing. a fine creature that one, breed for speed across the sands instead of just burdens. I have a similar one among my stables.**

**Hova: (starting to sweat) sooooo...anything you would like to know about the upcoming chapters...at all? ^ ^!**

**Iflar nods, and waits.**

**Hova: ...ok...um, well...the Tengu girl is coming back...and she'll hopefully have a name. the poll is still open for that so...last chance to vote for her name folks.**

**Iflar: (seeing the list on the table) Raven...Celeste...Melody? I would've preferred something more human for that girl, like Medusa.**

**Hova: um...that's not really a name for a bird...girl...**

**Iflar: Might I ask about the name 'Tetsuanna'?**

**Hova: (sighs) one of my sisters suggested it. It's Japanese, run it through google. although I'm not sure I spelled it right (Pone alarm rings) -_- and I gotta get ready for work...again. (winces as feet touch the floor) ah, tingly. thank you very much for coming Crown Prince.**

**Iflar: (bowing head slightly) thank you for having me here.**

**Hova: (turns to readers) and thank you all for being patient. please leave a review, come on, don't be shy, go on ^ ^**


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